


Things have never been stranger, things are gonna stay strange

by Oscarjames



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 2020, Established Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, Modern Day, Mr Brightside, Not Canon Compliant, all that, but very very fluffy and soft, chasing cars, it’s quite specific, lots of absolute bangers, soft and sappy and happy, there are Coronavirus sort of mentions because it’s inescapable, you know we are young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23245747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oscarjames/pseuds/Oscarjames
Summary: Merlin and Arthur grown up and living together, Merlin has his last day at work for no one knows how long because covid-19 means all schools are closed. Softness and fluffiness ensues.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	Things have never been stranger, things are gonna stay strange

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Coronavirus is everywhere and it’s not fun so I wanted to make something that’s lighter, maybe I shouldn’t have made it about the disease, well it’s not about it, but have it as a part, but it’s sort of all I’m thinking about. And since I’m not at school anymore, I’ll have lots of time to write about pretty much anything.

Arthur’s been working from home for nearly a week as his office closed the Thursday before. Since then, he’s sat on the sofa eating all the food in the house, making spreadsheets, and having conference calls. If it weren’t for all the ones that used FaceTime, he would absolutely be in pyjamas, unfortunately, he has to be presentable so he wears a shirt and tie (with pyjama trousers, _of_ _course_ , no one sees his lower half.

This is Merlin’s last day working at the school for the foreseeable future. He teaches physics in a state comprehensive and struggles to get them to care about Newton’s third law and induced magnetism and longitudinal waves. It seems he did have some impact though, as, in their final lesson, all his Year 13s wanted to take a photo with him. They were all reluctant to leave and he felt the exact same.

“I went to the supermarket for some bread and there was _nothing_. Nothing at all on all the shelves- no vegetables, no meat, certainly no beans, I got the third to last loaf of Hovis. There were announcements about how everyone is limited to three items of each thing and two for toilet roll and medicine and the like. God, it’s surreal.” Merlin says as he walks in, putting the loaf of bread and some apples on the table then washing his hands.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you this _whole_ time,” Arthur moves up on the sofa so his boyfriend can sit beside him, “It’s like a war zone out there.”

“They do keep calling it a wartime government.”

“Yeah.”

They pause.

“So, dinner?”

“There are some eggs in the fridge and we should have cheese and mushrooms and stuff. Omelettes?”

“Sounds good.”

“How was work?”

“It was strange, it ending, you know? But we’ll still be giving them work online. It was very weird and I’m a bit sad. But... now I’ll have more time to spend with _you_.” He puts on a sarcastic voice for the last word and turns to look at Arthur with a massive cheesy grin on his face.

Arthur reciprocates by initiating a tickle fight, something which he always inevitably wins. They roll around on the carpet, wriggling their fingers in armpits and necks and on chests, laughing so hard they can hardly breathe. At the end, Arthur takes Merlin’s hand in his own and they lie on the floor, breathing heavily and happy, nothing else really matters. They turn their faces to look at one another. Arthur’s cheeks are flushed and the blue of his eyes looks brighter, his hair is a mess and his shirt is crinkled, his tie half undone. Merlin thinks he looks beautiful. The feeling is completely reciprocated. Merlin’s eyes are slightly watery with laughter and there’s a massive smile plastered on his face, his hair is spiked up like a ten year old boy at a primary school disco and his ears are pink.

Arthur leans over and quickly kisses him. “Love you. I’ll make dinner.” He gets up and walks over to the kitchen. “Put on some music!” He yells back from the corridor.

Merlin sits down on the sofa and goes on Spotify. This is big. This is really big. This is historical, global history, and he’s living through it. Fuck. Happy music, eh? That’s probably a good idea. He puts on a playlist titled “nostalgic bangers”, it starts with We Are Young, both nostalgic and objectively an absolute banger. He walks through to the kitchen, where Arthur, who is grating cheese, turns around upon hearing the footsteps and smiles. Merlin wraps his arms around his waist and rests his chin on his shoulder, pressing the sides of their heads together.

“Reminiscing?”

“Mmm. A bit. Everything was so simple back then.”

Arthur finishes cooking and they eat their omelettes whilst listening to songs from the noughties and early 2010s. Merlin laces his fingers through Arthur’s across the table and they smile at one another. Things may be weird and unprecedented but they have one another, which is constant, and, frankly, enough. Arthur speaks, breaking the peace of the music.

“Put on Chasing Cars.”

“I’m not planning on weeping.”

“It’s a good song.”

“It’s also a sad song.”

“Please.”

“Yeah, fine, alright. Twat.” He puts it on when the current song finishes.

Arthur sticks out his tongue.

They walk through to the living room and sit down on the sofa, arms wrapped around one another and heads together. Arthur kisses Merlin’s forehead and stays there. Merlin massages Arthur’s hand softly and the music speaks the words that they need not say. Merlin laughs briefly, surprising himself just as much as Arthur.

“What’s funny?”

“No, nothing, it’s, I just- this song always reminds me of the wedding in Gavin and Stacey. I was just remembering and it feels so trivial. God, I want to be small again.”

“Don’t we all?” He rubs the back of Merlin’s head, tracing hearts and ‘I love you’s in his scalp. 

Merlin closes his eyes for the remainder of the song, taking in the fact that he has this brilliant life with love and kindness and a boyfriend who is practically perfect, thinking about the fact that everything around them may be going tits up but he will always have Arthur. The song ends.

“Let’s listen to Mr Brightside. Bring the mood up.” Merlin says immediately after, and jumps up, picking up his phone from the table.

Arthur smiles and stands up with him. They half sing, half shout the words and do incredibly primitive actions and melodramatic acting out of the scenes and emotions of the song and playing air guitar. Nearly collapsing into a fit of giggles when Merlin _actually_ chokes on his saliva when singing “choking on your alibis.” They run around the room, dancing stupidly like little kids and smiling and just being happy. At the end Merlin kisses Arthur and laughs into his lips before they sit down, on the floor, and catch their breath, fingers interlaced.

“How did it end up like this?” Merlin asks in a soft voice, still slightly breathless, half humourous, half genuine.

Arthur laughs, “I don’t know, I don’t know, Merlin, but one thing I _do_ know: I love you.” He takes hold of Merlin’s cheek with his hand and kisses him, softly.

Merlin leans forward and wraps his arms round Arthur’s torso, right hand presses between his shoulder blades, pulling him in closer. “I love you too.” He says into Arthur’s mouth, his face warm from Arthur’s hands.

Arthur rubs his hand through Merlin’s hair, holding the top of his head, then begins to softly kiss his neck. Merlin smiles and moves one hand under Arthur’s shirt and up his back, moving his thumb back and forth on the soft skin. Arthur moves back to Merlin’s mouth and they kiss once again, before Merlin moves away to untie Arthur’s tie then unbutton his shirt, their foreheads still resting together. Arthur pulls his tie off and places it behind him on the coffee table, then stands up offering out a hand to Merlin who takes it, kissing it on the way up, his eyes softened in the way that they only are when looking at Arthur.

In their bedroom, Arthur helps Merlin to take off his jumper then shirt and they both take off their own trousers before sinking onto their bed and pressing their lips together once again, arms wrapped around each other, warm and soft and happy, in the cool light of the moon through their curtains.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go! It reflects my mood quite a lot so I don’t know whether it’s particularly interesting but I hope so! What did you think? Please leave comments. And, I know it’s coming from everywhere, but remember to wash your hands, properly, and try and carry out social distancing as far as possible, even though it’s hard.


End file.
